The small candle that Sebastian had lit burned like a miniature sun in the dark room. I tried to turn away from him, from his piercing gaze, but he simply pulled me back and looked at me. I did not like his eyes; one minute they seemed to glow a yellow, then the next they shifted to a gray colour and after that they changed to a light blue. His skin was not as pale as it had been the night before. He had obviously gone out to feed, I thought mechanically, and gave a mental sigh of relief. At least then, I thought, that meant he would not feed off of me tonight…or so I hoped. Sebastian ran a hand through my hair and gave something of a smile to me as I lay shivering, the blankets pulled up around me as much as possible. He was dressed in black pants and a black silk tunic that accented his pale features and high cheekbones.
"Are you cold, Ria? I could start a fire for you or," he leaned closer to me until our faces were only inches apart, "I could lie down beside you and give you warmth." He chuckled at the frightened look that crossed my face, exposing his fangs in the light.
"Why are you here?" I found the nerve to ask the question, even if my voice came out nothing above a whisper. Sebastian looked surprised for only a moment, then leaned forwards and stretched out beside me. I moved as far away as I could from him as possible, but Sebastian's hands clamped down on my wrists and dragged me back over to him until I was pressed right up against his body.
"Why am I here?" He mocked at me. "Because I said I would come back and I have, Ria. Do you want to know what the workers are whispering at the factory about you?" I nodded quickly. Sebastian smiled and leaned closer to me until our foreheads touched. I could not move away from the contact but I felt his skin, which was as cold as a pane of glass on a winter's morning. I shivered again. "The women whisper amongst themselves, saying what has happened to 'poor little Ria' as they put it. They all believe that you are dead after incurring the wrath of the mighty Sarafan. Some have even gone as far to state as a fact that you are dead, Ria. And I have heard from other sources that your mother-"
"My mother," I interrupted the vampire. A sinking feeling entered my stomach. "Oh gods, what does she know? If she hears such news…her heart is weak and she might-"
"Your mother," Sebastian cut in smoothly, "your mother does not know what to consider as the truth. But that does not matter to me, little Ria. Everyone save a few unimportant people believes you to be dead and that is the way it shall be." Sebastian watched the look of dismay on my face impassively, then ran a claw lightly over the curving line of my cheekbone, down my neck to the swell of my breasts.
"Lutee," I said quickly. "Lutee knows who I am, Sebastian, and she can tell my mother that I am not dead but alive." The vampire looked at me for a few moments and began to laugh, a cold sound in the darkness of the room. He rolled over onto his back and continued to laugh, the amusement apparent in his eyes. I balled my hands into fists and for the first time since being in Sebastian's presence, grew angry with him. The fear I felt for this vampire was gone. I rose up quickly and looked at him. "Why are you laughing? I can tell Lutee everything and she in turn can tell my mother who then would-"
I was thrown back down onto the bed quickly, Sebastian on top of me and the mirth gone from his eyes. "Do I have to silence you again, Ria? I do not think that you would enjoy it, much like the first time," he hissed as he clamped a hand around my shoulder where he had drunk my blood the night before, causing a flash of pain that made me gasp. "And I suspect that you would not enjoy it in the least if Lutee, who after being told everything by you, went to go and see your mother only to find her dead. That's right Ria; I have no compunctions about killing your mother. Remember, as you said I am only a monster, and do you think this monster would care about slaughtering a frail and elderly woman? No. And I would kill Lutee as well if you told her everything. The serving woman has dung for brains, but that is why I have employed her. She asks no questions and does everything that I order her to." Sebastian slid off of me and sat at the edge of the bed. "Indirectly you would be killing her if you truly told her what I was. You know that Ria and it would be Lutee's blood on your hands, not on mine."
The anger that had flared through me only a few moments before left like water pouring from a drain and I looked down at my hands, which were beginning to shake again. "Then why not kill me, Sebastian? You know then that you run the risk of your little secret being known as long as I am alive." The boldness with which I spoke surprised me, but with the way I figured it out, I was already dead. Damned if you do, damned if you don't I thought bitterly.
"You're quite the dramatic one," he said unconcerned. Sebastian looked at me from the corner of his eyes and smirked. "A hunter needs his sport as well as his comfort, Ria. I will not kill you because I know you will not speak out, even if you say right now that you will in the end you will say nothing."
"So then I am only sport to you."
"Who said that you are not my comfort," he retorted quickly. The puzzlement that crossed my face made Sebastian laugh. "Yes, my comfort. Do not think that I am some unemotional vampire; I possess feelings just as any other being would. I know you might find that hard to believe, little Ria, but that is the truth. Of course, you saw what my temper is like as well as my passion."
"Then," I licked my lips and looked him straight in the eyes, "then I am only a whore to you. Something even less, a cheap and demeaned woman." There, I had said it, the one thing that had been on my mind since that night and had been running through my head all of today. "Somebody to amuse you when you feel like it." Sebastian stood up and silently walked over to the windows, looking out over the city with his arms folded across his chest. For a moment I thought he would become angry and attack me, that my words had such an effect upon him. But he did nothing except turn back to face me, his eyes now seeming to be less…cold.
"I was thinking more along the lines of unwilling lover," Sebastian finally spoke.
"Lover? What do you mean by that, Sebastian?"
He held out a claw towards me. "Never mind, Ria. Come here." I rose quickly out of the bed and walked over to Sebastian, hopeful that he would leave me faster if I just did what I was told to. The tunic I wore only came down to my mid thigh, but it was better than anything else. Sebastian gazed down at the scars that crossed over my legs, then looked at me. "Show me your wounds."
"You know where they are and how they look," I whispered to him. "You left your mark all over my body."
"All the same, I want to see them and the bandages, Ria. Why should you be so ashamed to show them to me when I have seen your whole body, just as you have seen mine?" The way that Sebastian said it so off-handedly made me blush. But there was truth in his words and what did it matter now to me anyway? I turned my back to him and lifted up the back of the tunic, covering my chest as Sebastian checked the bandages in the candlelight. I did not shudder in revulsion anymore when he did touch me. His hand was light, if cold, and he ran a forefinger along a particularly large cut that made me flinch. The vampire lord looked at the wound on my shoulder for a small time, touching it until I yelped out in pain.
"Sorry," he whispered in my ear. "Let me see your wrists." I gratefully pulled the tunic back over me and turned back around, wrists extended for Sebastian to look at. He undid the bandages quickly, looking at my soft flesh and the marks that he had left there as well, then redid them and looked at me, features almost soft. "I will get you some medicine to help you with the wounds to make sure that you do not scar, little Ria."
The mood in the room had become less hostile and I built up the nerve again to ask a question. "Sebastian, after I am healed will you…will you send me on my way, my silence assured?" I felt a wave of agitation from Sebastian and his face hardened like stone. The almost peaceful mood in the chamber vanished.
"You will heal first above all other things, Ria. And I will be the judge of what is to happen in your near future." My heart fell and I hid my face in the shadows as I went back to the bed and sat down. So I am a prisoner here, I thought dully. A prisoner here and a 'comfort' to Sebastian, the vampire lord of the Industrial Quarter in Meridian. My mother does not know whether I am alive or dead, the people whom I once worked with have given me up as dead and even Lutee cannot help me for she will die, and I do not wish that fate upon her.
I am all alone.
That thought terrified me more than anything else.
"Lutee will take you out tomorrow so you can receive new clothing," Sebastian sat back down beside me. "Do not even think though, for a moment, that you will be able to flee. I will hunt you down no matter where you are and bring you right back here, Ria. My little Ria, my unwilling lover."
"I do not love you Sebastian, and I do not know where you get these ideas. How can I flee when you have coerced me into this position? I know that wherever I go I will be watched and that I cannot tell anyone what I know about you because you will kill them, but not me. You will only silence me again." I was cheeky and knew I was risking his anger by what I said, but then like before, what did I have left to lose?
Sebastian reached out to grasp my hand, but I pulled away from him quickly and threw the covers over me. He did not seem to care. "A vampire can be possessive over many things Ria, and I chose to be possessive over you. You're an intelligent young woman who I believe is given to mind games, much like myself. You can figure out what I am saying after you read between the lines enough." He chuckled and pressed a hand onto my back. "I have to go and attend to business, but as always I will be back. You have the run of my mansion here, so I suggest you take advantage of it. Good night, little Ria."
With that, Sebastian caressed his cold lips across my own, one of his hands pressed to the back of my head so I could not move away. I felt his fangs graze against my lips and I thought I could smell the nauseating stench of blood. Then he was gone with the night; the small flame from the candle sputtered and died out.
I brushed my lips with the back of my hand, wanting to be rid of Sebastian's touch. But I still felt that kiss, even when I drifted off into sleep.